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ENGI 128

INTRODUCTION TO ENGINEERING SYSTEMS

Lecture 10:
Feedback Control

“Understand Your Technical World”


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Disturbance
Rejection:
Cockroach
Engineering
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Disturbance Rejection: Artificial System

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“Big Dog”, www.bostondynamics.com 3Mechatronics and Haptic Interfaces Lab
Engineering Intelligent Systems

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Roeder KD (1948) Organization of the ascending giant fibre system in the cockroach. 4Mechatronics and Haptic Interfaces Lab
Disturbance Rejection: Natural System

• “Preflexes”

(Recovery in ~27ms!)

Jindrich, D. L. and Full, R. J. (2002). Dynamic stabilization of rapid hexapedal locomotion. Journal of 5
Experimental Biology. 205,2803-2823. (Video and picture courtesy Devin Jindrich) 5Mechatronics and Haptic Interfaces Lab
Controlling Engineering Systems

Open Loop vs. Closed Loop

Feedback vs. Feedforward

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Types of Control: open loop

o Open Loop Control - sprinkler system

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Types of Control: feedback

o Feedback control - Oven

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Types of Control: feedback

• Winter growing up in Ohio

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Types of Control: feedforward

o Feedforward control –
the egg toss

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Why use feedback control

• or better, why do you need a control system at all?

• consider ovens, A/C units, airplanes, manufacturing,


pumping stations, etc

• What are we controlling?


 some physical quantity (constant)
 a dynamic behavior (a function of time)

• We need to 'tell' the system how we want it to behave

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How do we ‘tell’ a system how to behave?

• turn a dial
• type a number

• But we need to know how well we are doing!


 sensor data (temperature, pressure, speed, position, light, etc)

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• OK, I know what I want the system to do. and
I can monitor what the system is actually
doing. Now what?

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Control

 Ensure stability
• System maintains desired
operating point (hold steady Actuate Sense
speed) Throttle Speed
 Improve performance
• System responds rapidly to
changes (accelerate to 6 m/sec) Compute

 Guarantee robustness
• System tolerates perturbations in
dynamics (mass, drag, etc)

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Sample control systems

reference Feedforward
Controller

reference error Feedback output


Controller PLANT
or ‘set point’
- input

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Feedforward control

Feedforward input output


reference PLANT
Controller

Control element responds to change in command or


measured disturbance in a pre-defined way

Based on prediction of plant behavior (requires model)


Can react before error actually occurs
 Overcome sluggish dynamics and delays
 Does not jeopardize stability

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One implementation of feedforward
Input needed
Desired output Inverse model for desired output
PLANT
of system output

Model-based prediction of input

Ideally consists of exact inverse model of the plant


Can compensate for known plant dynamics, delays (before
you get errors)
No sensors needed
System response must be predictable

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Limitations of feedforward control

Effects of disturbance or command input must be


predictable
May not generalize to other conditions
Will not be accurate if the system changes

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Feedback

reference error Feedback input output


PLANT
Controller
-

Sensor

Plant System to be controlled


Reference Desired value of output (also ‘set point’)
Controller Computes compensatory command to the
plant based on error
Sensor (implied)

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Features of feedback

reference error Feedback input output


Controller PLANT
-

 Reactive / Error-driven
 Automatically compensates for disturbances
(controller acts on error)
 Automatically follows change in desired state (set
point can change)
 Can improve undesirable properties of system/plant
 Can be very simple

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Combining feedback and feedforward

Feedforward and feedback are often used together


 Feedforward component provides rapid response
 Feedback component fills in the rest of the response accurately,
compensating for errors in the model

reference Feedforward
Controller

input output
reference error Feedback
Controller PLANT
-

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Negative vs. Positive feedback

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[whiteboard – PID control]

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The Simplest feedback controller

• A proportional (P) controller


 In a proportional controller, the control action is proportional to
the error, and we can represent the controller as a gain, Kp.
• Represent with block diagram:

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Limitations of P-control

• There are many times when you want the output of a


system to be equal to the input value.
 The proportional controller amplifies the error and applies a
control effort to the system that is proportional to the error.
 P-controller must have some error in order to provide control
output

• If you want better error performance, you might want to


consider using an integral controller
 In integral control, the control effort is proportional to the integral
of the error
• So what?

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Integration
• An integral is really the area under a curve.
 Let's assume that the independent variable is time, t.
 Then as time goes on the area accumulates.

• In math courses when they talk about integration, they picture it as


the limit of a process of taking small incremental areas - shown
below - and letting the interval, T, shrink to zero.
• In digital integration, that visualization process is important.

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Summary of Integrator behavior

• If output level matches the desired level, the error is 0


• Because error is 0, the integrator output doesn’t change
• Because the integrator output doesn't change, if the rest
of the system is at steady state nothing else changes.
• This sounds too good to be true. What could possibly go
wrong?

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Integral control in a digital system

• Often implemented in code in some programming


language like C (or Python!).
• To implement integral control you use an approximation
to the integral.

• The integral computation is updated by adding an area


equal to the latest measurement multiplied by the
sampling period between measurements (the width of
the rectangle).
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Pseudo-code for integral controller
 ErrorInt = 0 /reset the integral approximation/
 MeasuredOutputn = MeasureVolts(instrument) /Measure the output/
 Errorn = DesiredOutput – MeasuredOutputn /Compute Error/
 ErrorIntn = ErrorIntn-1 + DT*(Errorn) /Integrate Error/
 VoltsOutn = IntegralGain*ErrorIntn /Compute output voltage/
 OutputVoltage(VoltsOut) /Output the control signal/
• This code assumes that you have a function -
MeasureVolts - that will measure voltage using an
instrument connected to the computer, and can output a
voltage with a function - OutputVoltage - that uses
another instrument connected to the computer.

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Performance, Stability, Robustness

Improve performance Ensure robustness


(e.g., response time of a (e.g., minimize change in output
first order system) response for variations in input)

Stabilize a response
(e.g., reduce oscillatory effects)

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Two main principles of feedback

Robustness to uncertainty through feedback


 Allows high performance in the presence of uncertainty
 Accurate sensing to compare actual to desired, correction
through computation and actuation

Design of dynamics through feedback


 Allows the dynamics (behavior) of the system to be modified
 Interconnection gives closed loop that modifies natural behavior
 Leverage capability to enhance performance or affect stability

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Limitations of Feedback

Reactionary solution that relies on existence and


observance of error
Disturbances applied to system will generate errors
Response will be delayed (disturbance rejection)
Trade-offs exist between performance and stability
Effects of delay in the feedback path lead to instabilities

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Summary of closed-loop feedback control

Reactive controller based on error between desired and


actual states
Automatically compensates for external disturbances and
follows changes in command
Significant impact on overall system response
Used extensively in both natural and artificial systems
Limitations:
 Error must be present before actions taken
 Tradeoff between performance and stability

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